The California-headquartered group explained that the system, which automates weighing and dispensing of samples in the sub-milligram to milligram range, will help manufacturers improve product development operations and allow scientific staff to focus on higher-value tasks.
The precise weighing and measuring required for laboratory-scale R&D projects can be among the most time-consuming aspects of the work. Errors at this stage can make it difficult to establish the therapeutic benefits of a candidate drug, creating a significant development bottleneck.
Symyx claimed that its Powdernium technology can accurately dispense a broad range of pharmaceutical powders with differing flowabilities into a variety of packaging and production receptacles in a manner that is compliant with all current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) requirements.
The system uses a proprietary the Easy-Dose self learning algorithm that can perform up to 600 different weighing operations in a single day with a less than 5 per cent standard deviation across the entire period. Symyx believes that as a result its industrial partner has achieved considerable throughput and processing benefits in addition to an overall reduction in operating costs.
Symyx launches new R&D unit
The news follows hot on the heels of Symyx' inauguration of its life sciences research service for drug firms seeking to establish collaborative drug development partnerships.
One of the first companies to work with the new unit is Bristol-Myers Squibb (B-MS) which has signed-up use Symyx' solubility platform.
Richard Boehner, president of the new R&D unit, said that: "Symyx Research is continuing to transform its offerings into packaged, smaller scope and easily accessible solutions." He added that the collaboration with B-MS would help the US major improve efficiency in its discovery and development operations.
Services provided by Symyx Research are designed to offer industrial clients maximum flexibility, ranging from single trials to multiple, multi-year experimentation contracts. The service is also designed to help drug developers gain a greater insight from R&D operations because the time and effort savings that the platform provides allow for more experiments and therefore larger datasets to be amassed.
Symyx said that clients will have dynamic on-line access to the results of candidate development trials that have already been completed which, it argued, will further improve development efficiency and save time.